Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges. ¹  MDGs range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. ² To ensure environmental sustainability is an important one among the eight goals.

Climate change brings pressures to the UN Millennium Development Goals (GDGs) and will potentially constrain the ability of developing countries to reach their poverty reduction and sustainable development objectives under the MDGs.

The poor, especially the rural poor who depend on natural resources for their livelihood, are the most vulnerable to environmental shocks and stresses. Yet climate change by itself will seriously degrade many of the natural resources and ecosystems on which these communities depend for their livelihoods.³